Kenmore driver is charged in fatal hit-run

King County prosecutors charged a 24-year-old Kenmore woman with felony hit and run on Thursday, accusing her of killing a man with her pickup early Monday and driving off without rendering aid.

Joseph “JD” Humphreys, a 31-year-old Kenmore man, was walking on the west side of the road in the 18400 block of 62nd Avenue Northeast when he was hit and killed just after midnight on Monday, according to charging documents.

The driver accused of killing him, Sydney Katelane Jones, returned to the scene around 1:30 a.m. and called 911, claiming she had been walking her dog when she came across a dead man on the road — without ever revealing that she had been the driver who had hit him, according to charging papers.

About 2 p.m. that afternoon, Jones and her mother met a King County sheriff’s detective at Kenmore City Hall, where Jones turned herself in and was arrested, the papers say.

She spent about 24 hours in the King County Jail before she was released after posting a $25,000 bond, jail records show. She is to be arraigned Nov. 7.

Jones, who is attending outpatient substance-abuse treatment, lives with her parents less than a quarter mile from where Humphreys was killed, according to the charges. She had been living in Arizona since 2011 but returned to Washington in March, the papers say.

According to the charging papers, Jones was driving a 2004 Ford F150 pickup with Arizona license plates when she claims to have become distracted while lighting a cigarette.

While “probably driving a little faster than she should have,” Jones told a detective she felt “a bump” but did not see anything.

The investigating detective noted that the “impact was significant enough to kill Humphreys on the scene, and leave behind headlight parts,” which the detective was later able to match to the vehicle Jones had been driving, the papers say.

Humphreys’ father, Mark Humphreys, was too distraught to speak in-depth about his son on Thursday.

“JD was just like his whole group of friends — a good person who just liked to be happy and joyous,” Mark Humphreys said. “He was on the way to a good future.”

According to an obituary in The Seattle Times, JD Humphreys was born in Seattle on Sept. 26, 1982, and grew up in Kenmore, graduating from Inglemoor High School and attending college in Bellingham. He returned to Kenmore in 2004 and was an avid soccer fan and Seahawks season ticket holder, it says.

“His friends and family could always count on him for a good joke, a magic trick or a helping hand. He valued those around him, constantly putting their needs above his own and his light hearted nature made him a hit with the kids,” reads Humphreys’ obituary.

In addition to his father, Humphreys is survived by his mother, Betty, and younger sister Jennifer; an uncle, three aunts, cousins and several lifelong friends, the obituary says.

His funeral is 1 p.m. Saturday, with a viewing at 11 a.m., at Wiggin and Sons, 2003 N.W. 57th St., in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made in Humphreys’ name to the Shoreline School District Holiday Fund, 18560 1st Ave N.E., Shoreline, WA 98155.